MYself and my stepdad are looking into gettin a welder and would like some of your recommendations. I know miller is a good company but this would be something for our own personal use. I would also like trying to learn to make things and welding them.

 

you need to give a little more info on what youre going to do with it. do you wanna make big steel structures? then get a stick welder. do you wanna make car parts, tables, trailers, fences, ornaments? get a mig. if you wanna make precision parts then get a tig. tigs also come with stick welders most of the time. tigs take a lot more time than mig but tig usually looks better than mig. tigs are more expensive. you can get a decent mig for $300-500. it takes about $900-1500 for an entry level tig/stick. with some migs you can use fluxcore so you dont need gas. with tig you need gas no matter what. stick uses no gas. so give us some more info and i'm sure there will be plenty of responses

 

just want a mig welder so we can start making some things on our own. I would like to be able to make some car parts or something, weld downpipes, chargepipes, etc...

 

don't get a fluxcore they're crap. For home i have a millermatic 135 with 75/25 gas...awesome welder...a little pricey though. but you get what you pay for with welders. don't forget if you plan on doing some stainless, get a tig. also if you can afford to, get a 220v, you can weld small stuff as well as the bigger stuff too, whereas i can't with my 110

 

Flux Core is good at times. Splashes here and there, but nothing to bad. Gets the job done.

Just make sure you practice on making a nice bead, etc on scrap metals.

But of course, with GAS is much more cleaner and no splash (or very little)

MILLER would be my next machine, TIG.